Focus on Manchin overlooks fact that he doesn’t have a veto on whether or not Senate votes. He may vote no and defeat legislation when Senate does vote, but only on issues that divide all Democrats from all Republicans. There are very few issues that divide all Democrats’ preferred policies from all Republicans’ preferred policies. And none to my knowledge on which Democrats and Republicans (all of them) are equally committed to their position and equally opposed to the other position.

2011. Bob Woodward in his book, the Price of Politics (and in my first hand experience), tells us that Reid and McConnell were concerned about not raising the debt limit and didn’t see an alternative to passing legislation to do so by Aug. 2, regardless of any fiscal reforms At the time, McConnell took a hard line publicly while quietly managing Republican senators to keep things under control (he wasn’t successful, but he tried).

Is this a joke?thehill.com/homenews/senat… It must be a joke. McConnell’s punking us, right?

Wait. I thought McConnell said he wasn’t bluffing. Remember that? What he meant to say was, I won’t help raise the debt limit unless I have to help. Of course, this is what McConnell does on debt limit. He cooperated in 2014 after stating that he would not rollcall.com/2021/10/06/man… Remember this from 2014? courier-journal.com/story/news/pol…

@beccanalia @KDbyProxy Politics isn’t production. We aren’t building Ford Explorers in Congress. Our representatives are trying (or should be trying) to make collective decisions on our behalf. There is no point other than that. It is sacred. The second we think something matters more, it breaks. @beccanalia @KDbyProxy Politics and means/ends don’t work. Freedom and means/ends don’t work. You negotiate and bargain and persuade in Congress. You assemble products mindlessly according to a product that someone somewhere else designed when you work in a factory. You argue and compromise in Congress

This is where I am at the moment.

1. Senate can vote whenever it wants. McConnell never should have ceded the Senate’s constitutional power to confirm SCOTUS nominees to POTUS and POTUS elections.

2. Democrats have changed their tune just as much as Republicans from 2016 to now 3. No Republican appears to think Trump will win. Otherwise, why oppose the “wait until after the election” argument? They oppose because they think that means “wait until Biden is president.”

I’m still working through all of the SCOTUS dynamics. But this just occurred to me: If GOP confirms a RBG replacement, that is huge. Shifts Court balance-of-power by replacing a staunch liberal with a conservative (theoretically). If they don’t, Biden does. His nominee is...? I expect Biden to nominate someone who is less liberal than Ginsburg give his views and the makeup of the Senate.

This is the inverse of McConnell’s statement. Two sides of the same coin. Next year. This year. This is a human being we are talking about here. Why not wait at least a day before we start talking about when we will replace her! thehill.com/homenews/senat… It’s almost like neither side cares about human life. And we wonder why our politics is so dysfunctional

On June 24, Lamar Alexander gave a speech on the Senate floor. In it, he said, “Senator McConnell is the majority leader, and because he is, he has one right, really, which is to decide what to bring to the floor.” Alexander, a former Rule Committee Chairman, is wrong. Only the Senate can decide what to bring to the floor. It does so by approving motions to proceed. And all senators, not just the majority leader, can make motions to proceed.

“States are entitled to remove or punish electors who changed their votes.” - But “states” here = people or their elected representatives. nytimes.com/2020/07/06/us/… By starting with the popular foundation of the state, we can highlight the underlying issue that is at stake in the push to reform the Electoral College- statewide popular vote vs. national popular vote.

@ProfGoodmanTX There is no question that effective Senate leadership changes over time. But I believe that we can make inferences based on leadership typologies, political environment, and internal chamber dynamics. @ProfGoodmanTX For example, I think it is a reasonable assumption to claim that LBJ would not be remembered as the master of the Senate had he been its majority leader in the 1960s and not Mansfield. His leadership style was poorly suited to the moment.

The police reform bill stalling in the Senate is exhibit A in the case against how McConnell and Schumer manage the institution. Regardless of your view on the underlying policy, the debate itself didn’t have to stall.

“We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.” - Roberts nytimes.com/2020/06/18/us/… Does this view suggest that SCOTUS thinks President Obama was authorized to implement DACA in the first place? If Obama lacked the constitutional power to make law, then a procedural requirement can't prevent President Trump from following the Constitution by ending DACA.

“The coronavirus pandemic, a severe economic downturn and the widespread demonstrations in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in police custody would pose a serious political challenge to any president seeking re-election.” nytimes.com/2020/06/09/ups… Senate Republicans have done very little for four years and pointed to the president’s successes instead. If these numbers continue, those successes will be easily reversed by the next president. After lecturing Democrats on the folly of relying on executive action, GOP does same

Sessions was MAGA long before Trump. His policy positions have been consistent. The president’s vendetta against him irregardless of those policies suggests that Trump’s MAGA promises were merely a means to an end in 2016.

https://twitter.com/jeffsessions/status/1264028418951258112

If voters really wanted to make America great again, they would presumably vote for candidates who agreed with them instead of voting for candidates who don’t agree with them.

“After three weeks in the Capitol, the Senate has not turned into the coronavirus hot spot that some feared.” politico.com/news/2020/05/2… “Democrats still say it's not worth the risk since the Senate isn't fully concentrating on coronavirus.” - Have Democrats tried to force the Senate to do what they want? Or are they waiting on McConnell to do it?

“Congress, by its very nature, doesn't like dealing with politically problematic situations.” politico.com/news/2020/05/1… I find this interesting. On one hand, we all accept it as a profound grasp of the obvious. But on the other hand, it is odd. Congress doesn’t decide to tackle a tough issue as a unitary actor. That decision is made organically as its members try to do things.

Pandemic was really caused by…the Electoral College, gerrymandering, and the judicial confirmation process? Great example of overplaying your hand. @tribelaw should have based his case on Trump’s early failure of rhetorical leadership and left it at that. thebulwark.com/the-constituti… @tribelaw We need to "to repair the flaws in our institutional infrastructure that made us so vulnerable to the coronavirus.” The repair job will likely do what @tribelaw says he’s trying to stop- undermine democratic self-government.

Thinking on it for a bit, and the GOP’s “Democrats are socialists” talking point for 2020 seems to be no longer relevant. They may be socialists. But that’s not the point. What is interesting is that the pandemic revealed many Republicans to be socialistic too. Before the pandemic, I thought Republicans and Democrats saw politics in the same way- as socialism. After the pandemic, I am beginning to think that the two parties are economics in similar terms.

I don’t know where to begin. For now, consider that getting judges through the Senate is easier, not harder, than it once was. And McConnell isn’t nominating them. Trump is. And most judges are getting bipartisan support. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/… As for getting a coronavirus pandemic aid package through the Senate, there was never any serious opposition to it.

McConnell assumes that one senator can speak until Friday or Saturday. What McConnell meant to say is that as long as he is unwilling to follow the Senate rules to legislate, it will take until Friday or Saturday to act. The Senate operated for over a century without cloture and without unanimous consent.